Survival of the Fittest
by hurricaneezra
Summary: 21-year-old Leah, a new graduate from SUNY-ESF in New York, lives with her older brother Rick in Georgia. Leah's world is soon destroyed when her brother first ends up in a coma at the Atlanta, GA hospital, and again when an apocalyptic disaster spreads throughout the world. Her only two worries are surviving and eating: and curiosity on how long she can live.
1. Chapter 1

The fear of never reaching my brother was heart breaking. I am running and pushing all of the abandoned stretchers away from wherever I am going, looking for room 38A that was on the dirty board in the Atlanta hospital. I heard screaming down the hall from where I was and turned to see a woman falling to the floor, one of those biters going for her neck. My life was in slow motion as I watched her drown in her own blood, the thing ripping her jugular out and screeching for more. I tripped and fell over another dead body and grasped my throat before I vomited and crawled to stand up, rushing to the room. I could see the number and the letter that stood with it.

_ 38A. 38A. You can do this Leah. You can._

I reach the door and right before I opened it, I felt something shove me away. It was a biter reaching and gurgling for me. I kicked its abdomen and then saw an arrow shoot through its back. It tumbled down and I was panting so hard I almost fainted. A man was staring at me with his bow still cocked and for just a split second, I blinked but threw the hospital door open to where my brother was.

Rick was lying peacefully in the hospital bed, the room looking untouched. I ran over to the bedside and shook his shoulders trying to wake him but no response. I cried out his name and couldn't control my shaky hands.

"You ar'right girl?" The man with the bow asked in the doorway. His hair was stringy and his face dirty.

"Help me," I muttered. "My brother, he's in a coma I think, but please help me."

The man looked at the monitor with doubt and shook his head. "It's off, ma'am. It's not going to work no more. 'powers out."

I couldn't believe his casual gesture. My eyes were welling up with tears as I ignored him and tried tending to my brother yet again, trying to move him off the hospital bed.

"I have to get him out of here."

More sounds were coming from the hallway, getting louder. The man closed the hospital door and then looked me up and down, noticing my overalls with brass knuckles in the back pocket.

"Where'd you get that and why ain't you usin' it?" He asked.

I was still fumbling with Rick and crying so hard, mumbling words I couldn't even make out. I yelled loudly and slammed my fists on the hospital bed; frustrated the world took my best friend and older brother away from me so soon.

"Rick, I need you… _please_ wake up."

The man reached around me and put his hand around my mouth. "You're going to attract those things if you keep yellin' like that!"

I shoved him away and stared at his dirty face. "Then leave me alone! I don't need your help!"

There was banging on the door and he let go of me, pushing a chair up against the door to keep it closed for as long as possible. He searched the room for another way out, noticing we were only on the first floor of the hospital. I sat on the floor sobbing, putting my head between my knees. I could've died there for all that mattered. Rick was gone, and I didn't want to live if he wasn't in my life.

Suddenly, something hard hit me on the top of my head and I was unconscious.

_I was dreaming, sitting on my porch with my book and journal. I recorded all wildlife sounds and sights heard each day to keep a record for when the world changed so drastically, they never existed again, and I could tell my children all about how I saw a Cedar Waxwing before it was extinct. I was playing with the corner of the pages, thinking quietly to myself. A note sat in the front of the book from Rick. _

_ "For all your thoughts and imaginative ideas. R."_

_ The forest behind my back deck was about 30 meters away, but plenty of birds foraged in the trees above. I wrote down another species, black and white warbler. Its high-pitched chirp was my favorite sound to hear in the late afternoons._

_ My mother stepped out onto the porch. She was visiting my brother and I for a week this summer. She loved to come to Georgia to escape the cold from New England occasionally, but had a hard time coming down like she used to._

_ She sat on the bench with me and smiled. "I love you." _

_ I put my head on her shoulder, feeling happier than ever. "I love you too mom."_

_ "You have to get to our island."_

_ Her words were too realistic. I sat up and saw her face, this time, sweaty and panicked. _

_ "You and Rick, come to the island, where no one lives and we can survive this." _

_ "No," I said out loud. "No!"_

I woke in a sweat and jumped from the sleeping pad I was laying on. I pushed the hair off my face and saw the man with the bow sitting in the corner of the tent, kneeling on one knee. We just stared at each other for a second before I realized I didn't feel the brass knuckles in my pocket, and I wasn't wearing my overalls.

"Where are my things?" I asked without breaking eye contact.

He chuckled. He was cleaning a knife. "Your clothes are being cleaned in the pond, and I got'cher weapon in case you tried killing me."

I didn't say a word. I remembered being in the hospital before going unconscious. I touched a sore spot on my head and immediately regretted doing so, cringing at the pain.

The man stood up. "I just wanted to apologize and explain myself a little more before you hurt yourself."

I glanced at him and remembered he was the last one I was with. "Where are we?"

"A camp, just north of Atlanta. We're in the middle of the woods tryin'a stay away from those biters. I was searching for resources when I saw you runnin' around like a damn chicken with its head cut off." He saw my expression and cleared his throat before continuing. "I thought you needed help. You looked a little… frazzled.

"After you were trying to help yer brother out, I noticed we were on the first floor. You weren't looking at me and the biters were banging so hard on the door they were gonna bust it open. So I hit you over the head with a pole, cus I knew you'd never come with me if I just asked yah to. I carried you out the room and up to our camp."

My eyes narrowed as I tried processing all of this. Rick was still in the hospital. I'm with strangers. I don't know if Rick is okay or not.

"I have to go back to the hospital, right now, please."

He laughed again, continuing to clean his knife. "Persistent, ain't yah? There's a bunch of us that are there right now tryina look for food. I didn't get much since you were most of the load. I got yer bag," he tossed my backpack at my feet. My almost empty water bottle and journal that Rick gave me were in there. "Rick yer brother?"

I blinked. "You went through my journal?"

"Just had to make sure you weren't some killer, don't get upset over there."

I sat down and relaxed, feeling my achy body responds to how tense I've been. He tossed a bag of trail mix, a not-so-frozen meal, and water over to where I'm sitting.

"You should eat, there's plenty of work that you could be doin' around here."

He began walking out and I stopped him. "Wait, what is your name?"

He stopped but didn't turn around. "Daryl. Nice meeting you, Leah."


	2. Chapter 2

After my meal and a little bit of time to gather my thoughts, I slipped out of the tent and moved away from the crowd that was huddled around a fire. The sun was setting now and it would be dark soon. I felt uneasy not having my brass knuckles on me.

This camp was on top of a huge hill and had a birds-eye view of Atlanta below. Smoke, destruction and tragedy were all I could see. I used to see a beautiful city with business people in it, living their normal lives and wondering what was for dinner that night. A repetitive life that was not ready for the apocalyptic world it had become.

Rick was appearing in my mind more and more, making my skin itch with anxiety. I remember he was at work a few weeks ago, chasing a criminal with his partner Shane, when the delinquent shot Rick through the stomach. I was at school in New York when my mother called me hysterical. I've never driven home to Georgia so quickly in my life. When I arrived my mother was just flying in to the airport from Rhode Island. The doctor said he was in critical condition and slipped into a coma. I spent days at the hospital, sleeping in the chair with my mother in his room, feeling as though I myself were in a dream.

A lot of time had passed and I decided to go home to eat and do laundry. I insisted my mother went home to Rhode Island that I would keep her updated on all of Rick's progress. He was getting better but was still in his coma. I stayed positive, visiting him everyday and writing in the journal he gave me for my 20th birthday. A year later I had almost filled it up, writing so small so I didn't have to shelf my favorite gift from my older brother.

Then the world went to shit. People were looting the stores for resources, and I was fighting my way on foot to the Atlanta hospital from Douglasville, which took me almost 9 hours. I found an abandoned store with guns and knives, choosing the brass knuckles as my weapon of choice: suttle but powerful. I just remember thinking to myself I needed to get Rick out of the hospital and get him to a safer place.

My thoughts were interrupted by the slow footsteps appearing behind me. I turned and saw Daryl with my overalls, black t-shirt and boots. He had my brass knuckles in his pocket.

"Thank you," I managed to mumble, not really sure if I was thankful for his actions. I wanted to survive but I was miles from Rick now, not sure how I felt about this man.

He nodded anyway and pulled the weapon from his pocket and slowly handed it to me.

"Why did you bring me here?" I blurted out, snatching my property from him before he changed his mind. I felt anger flutter in my gut, anxiety crawling through my skin. "I didn't want this."

He looked down at his feet and positioned his stance, kicking dirt while doing it. "I knew you wouldn't come with me and you looked like you needed help. No one can survive by themselves out here."

"I can survive without your help, but I can't without my family. How am I supposed to know if Rick is alive? I had a plan, and you ruined it."

He tensed and looked angry now. "You know, most people thank those that help them in a situation like yer'self. He is _dead_, little girl. We all lost someone this week. You wouldn't be here alive if it weren't fer me."

My mouth gaped open and my eyes widened. His words struck me like a knife, truth slowing seeping into my veins. I didn't want to cry again, mostly because I didn't think I had the energy to do so. Instead I walked past him, wanting to go back in the tent to be by myself when I saw the group of people around the fire watching me. I didn't realize how loud I was being, my stubborn attitude taking over my good conscious. I scanned the crowd and noticed a set of familiar eyes.

"Shane?"

"Holy shit, Leah." Shane jumped from his seat and picked me up, hugging me and rocking me back and forth to hush me from my sobbing. I couldn't make out the words I had, finally being with someone I knew and could trust.

The plethora of questions I had at that moment was too overwhelming, but I managed to spit out one. "Shane, what the hell is happening to us?"

He was stroking my hair and carried me into an RV that didn't look like it could even run anymore. We sat on a small couch together, his arm around my shoulders as I continued to cry.

After a long time, I wiped my tears and looked at Shane. "Rick is…he's…"

"I know, Leah. But we're here. We're alive. Let's just talk for a minute, okay?"

Shane explained to me that he also went to the hospital, and must have been there hours before I was. When he realized there was no helping Rick he put a stretcher in front of the door and ran out, meeting this group while running down the streets of Atlanta. He collected resources and decided to come back to their camp with them.

I told him I had just gotten home from visiting Rick when everything happened. He was amazed I managed to walk the distance to the hospital from my house and still be alive. He noticed a bruise on my forehead and asked where I got it.

"That man, Daryl. He hit me over the head so I couldn't argue him to come here."

Shane looked intense for a second but then raised his eyebrows and sighed. "Can't say I necessarily blame him."

Shuffling and loud talking was coming from outside of the RV now. Shane stood up and peeked out of the curtains. His eyes became wide and he picked up an axe from underneath the couch, stopping to look at me before opening the small door to the RV.

"Have you fought these things before?"

I knew now wasn't the time to consider how well I fought my last biter. "Yes."

Shane smiled and reached for my hand. "Well, let's get to it Ms. Grimes."


End file.
